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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27500734">What's New, Pussycat?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistressAkira/pseuds/MistressAkira'>MistressAkira</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu | Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cats, Getting Together, Hijinks &amp; Shenanigans, M/M, Meet-Cute, Neighbors, Swearing, cw for excessive chainsmoking but modern au ares takes smoking kills as a personal challenge, everyone here is a hot mess okay, except its really really cringe, oh my god they were neighbors, seliph is tired and ares is awkward angry and horny</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-08 02:47:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>7,813</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27500734</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistressAkira/pseuds/MistressAkira</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“ASSHOLE! I KNOW YOU’RE HOME” Ares shouted into 511’s peephole, careless with the amount of noise he was making despite the hour, as he could not give a flying fuck about it right now. “I’M GONNA BE THAT JERK BUT OUR BUILDING HAS A GODDAMN NO PETS POLICY AND YOUR CAT WILL NOT STOP MEOWING AND I WILL REPORT YOU-“</p><p>In the middle of his tirade, the door was suddenly yanked open, and Ares had to pull his hand back to keep from outright clocking the person that stepped out.</p><p>Ares lurched back, refocusing his attention on the form that had appeared before him, jaw already working to deliver another supremely profane round of bitchery, and-</p><p>-----------</p><p>Ares has a new neighbor. New neighbor has a cat. Things do not go as expected.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aless | Ares/Celice | Seliph</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>What's New, Pussycat?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonymusAxolotl/gifts">AnonymusAxolotl</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Idea courtesy of Livi/anonymousaxolotl- this one's for you my dear! Sorry it took me two whole ass years whoops. :D</p><p>Prompt: ‘Okay I don’t want to be that jerk but our building has a strict No Pets policy and your cat will not stop meowing and I WILL report you and OH NO YOU’RE CUTE’ au (OG post by anonymoussong on tumblr)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ares was going to lose his goddamn mind.</p><p>It’d been going on for weeks now- <em> months, </em>he realized, laying there in his bed at 1:06 am on a Tuesday morning in early November. Ever since the local college’s fall semester began back in August.</p><p>Ares glared at the phone in his hand, its glow lighting up the abyss of his room like a small sun, partially blinding him in addition to confirming both the current time and the approximate length of Ares’ life this heinousness had continued. </p><p>This heinousness that had also been going on nonstop for two whole fucking days in a row. Which was the main concern as of right now.</p><p>Ares lived at the Grannvale apartments, right down the street from Belhalla University, in unit 510. And his neighbor in the apartment left of his- 511- had a cat. A cat that liked to stay up <em> meowing </em> at all hours of the day and night. A cat that was currently howling its little lungs out directly on the opposite side of Ares’ bedroom wall, just as it had been for the last two nights.</p><p>And yes, while this was undoubtably <em> annoying, </em> even <em> downright fucking awful, </em>and had very nearly led Ares to committing several acts of battery and destruction of property not exclusive to his neighbor and their apartment, there was a bigger issue here.</p><p>Ares’ neighbor had a cat. The Grannvale apartments didn’t allow pets.</p><p>More often than he’d care to admit, usually late at night or early in the morning, when murderous thoughts were the most prolific and methods of application most inspired, he’d debated heavily with the idea of just ratting out this asshole to their landlord and being done with it. But something had always kept Ares from actually going through with it.</p><p>He found the thought of being a snitch distasteful even at the best of times, and if he was being honest, there were plenty of occurrences when he’d just had too much of his own bullshit to deal with that he didn’t have the time to bother. What was more, Ares had never actually <em> met </em> his neighbor in 511. He’d never even <em> seen </em>them. Between his inconsistent work and university schedules, Ares himself kept weird hours, but it just seemed like no matter what day of the week it was, no matter the time, his neighbor was never home. And Ares had never seen a car 511’s parking space, either. It was beyond perplexing. Even with the occasional thumps or sounds of music playing, if Ares hadn’t known better, he’d think he’d been neighbors with a ghost (and their pet pterodactyl) for the better part of two months.</p><p>But at the end of the day, the truth was as much as he hated the noise, Ares hated his landlord <em> more </em>. He was an old, dour guy who grimaced at everything and hated kids, and at one time might have even been handsome, with his sharp features and thick red hair, but at present was an absolute dick who let shady guys in robes hang out around the building and couldn’t return a phone call about a busted water heater if his life depended on it.</p><p>And as petty as it was, if not telling him about the violation against his cherished ‘no pets’ rule was the closest Ares could get to an outright ‘Fuck You’, he’d take it. He’d sucked it up and kept his mouth closed for nearly two months.</p><p>But right now…Right now, this yowling had been going on since five the previous evening and Ares already had Velthomer’s number up and was <em>this</em> <em>clos</em>e to using the phone in his hand to call their landlord and bitch him out into next week.</p><p>Or perhaps he’d simply use it to bludgeon his way through the wall and find a way to deal with the cat himself. He was feeling exceptionally open-minded right now.</p><p>But before Ares could come to a conclusion on any plan, he heard the unmistakable <em>thump </em>and whine of a door being opened beyond the shared wall, audible through the paper-thin plaster. The cat meowed again, a far happier sound than the mournful banshee wails of before.</p><p>The door <em> thumped </em>closed, and a soft murmur drifted unintelligibly through the wall, indeterminate in age or gender but soft and soothing as it droned on, probably coddling that mouthy beast. That cat moved away from the wall, and was now meowing at who Ares presumed to be its owner, the distance between it and Ares’ eardrums muffling the noise quite a bit, though the sound was still louder than the silence Ares would have preferred at 1am.</p><p>But now that the cat had moved away from the wall, Ares should have considered it a win. Called it a night, put his phone down and rolled over.</p><p>Instead Ares was up and hurling himself out of bed before he’d altogether realized what he planned to do.</p><p>Tossing on a black hoodie over his bare chest and slipping into his combat boots without even stopping to tuck in the laces, he threw his front door open and tromped out onto the landing, staring down his neighbor’s door in a breathless instant. His hand was already balled into a fist and completing its headlong plummet into the wood by the time his brain had caught up with the rest of his body, and by then all the annoyance, stress, and fury of the past two months had resurfaced and been rallied into a fine frenzy, and it all came rushing out.</p><p>“ASSHOLE! I KNOW YOU’RE HOME” Ares shouted into 511’s peephole, careless with the amount of noise he was making despite the hour, as he could not give a flying fuck about it right now. “I’M GONNA BE THAT JERK BUT OUR BUILDING HAS A GODDAMN NO PETS POLICY AND YOUR CAT WILL <em> NOT </em> STOP MEOWING AND I <em> WILL </em> REPORT YOU-“</p><p>In the middle of his tirade, the door was suddenly yanked open, and Ares had to pull his hand back to keep from outright clocking the person that stepped out.</p><p>Ares lurched back, refocusing his attention on the form that had appeared before him, jaw already working to deliver another supremely profane round of bitchery, and-</p><p>
  <em> Oh no you’re cute. </em>
</p><p>Ares found his mouth snapping shut. He could only stare dumbly as his neighbor from 511 flung himself fully into the light of the hall, eyes wide and chest heaving.</p><p>511 appeared to be a slender young man, a fair bit shorter than Ares and at first glance a teenager, but couldn’t have been much younger than Ares himself, what with his strong, elegant features and lean-but-not-gangly frame. He had long dark hair tied back in a high ponytail, with bangs that flopped messily on his forehead and framed his huge, equally dark eyes.</p><p>Eyes that were currently boring into Ares’, open so wide you could land a plane on them.</p><p>Ares stared at 511 and 511 stared back, and when one of them had to blink, it was 511, and Ares was certain he’d been struck with a blunt force object with how dizzy he felt in that moment, because <em> wow, 511’s eyelashes are long- </em></p><p>“Uh.”</p><p>“I-I’m sorry!” 511 burst out, face white-washed by panic. “I had no idea she was being so loud, I’m so sorry!”</p><p>“UH….”</p><p>“She’s got separation anxiety, and we’ve been trying to work on it, but I’ve also been looking for a pet sitter to stay with her while I’m away. That’s been hard, because I’m almost always gone…” He continued, looking pensive. It was then that Ares noticed what 511 was wearing: a black button up shirt, pressed dress slacks, and what appeared to be a knee-length apron, double-tied around his slender waist. A small collection of pens hung in a line along the lip of one pocket, and a thick wad of cash peeked out of the other.</p><p>As Ares analyzed this, 511 went on, his eyebrows drawn up and a small apologetic smile on his face. “I’m… I’m still <em> so </em> sorry if she’s been disturbing your sleep. Is there anything I can do? To make it up to you? I know, I haven’t been very neighborly, I never even introduced myself…”</p><p>“It’s… It’s fine.” Ares choked out, surprising himself with the sound of his own voice.</p><p>511, too, jumped a bit at the sudden reprisal of Ares’ ability to communicate verbally, but after a moment slid into an easy smile that threatened to banish Ares’ words yet again, folding his hands and straightening up to his full height- which was disarmingly level to Ares’ own eyes.</p><p>“I’m so sorry again about Deirdre. She was staying with my cousin while I looked for a place that would allow pets, but she wasn’t doing very well over there so I took her home with me. She’s not as sick anymore, but I guess her anxiety is still pretty bad.” 511 suddenly glanced around the hall, looking left to the unit on the other side of his and then right to Ares’, his expression uncertain. “Um, it’s probably pretty dumb to keep talking about this out in the hall where someone could hear. Would you like to come inside? We could probably talk better in there-“</p><p><em> Yes, </em>Ares’ addled brain immediately responded. </p><p>“No.” His tongue snapped, coming back to himself. Ares rubbed a hand into his face, trying to reorganize his thoughts in a decidedly not, <em> ‘wow my neighbor is super cute and also I just threatened to get him thrown out’ </em>direction. God, he really was dedicating himself to being That Jerk tonight.</p><p>He removed his hand from his face, crossing his arms and forcing himself to stare down 511. “I said it’s fine, so <em> it’s fine </em>.” He bit out with a scowl. “I don’t care. Just find a way to keep her quiet… And I won’t report you to Velthomer. Fair?”</p><p>The smile that overtook 511’s face was nearly nuclear, and Ares was caught helpless in the blast zone. “Yes! Absolutely.” He said, radiating relief. “Thank you!”</p><p>Ares had to narrow his eyes to look at him then, but even that wasn’t enough to shield him from the absolute eminence of 511’s smile. He forced himself to turn away, and decided it best to retreat for the night. He’d gotten what he’d came for. No need to stick around and risk radiation poisoning too.</p><p>A small creak echoed throughout the hallway, and out of the corner of his eye, Ares saw 511’s door edge open just the slightest bit more, a small furry head poking out in the widened gap. <em> The cat. </em>She was white, round, and so fluffy Ares couldn’t tell if she had limbs let alone where any of them began, like a pillow that had somehow acquired eyes and feet. Nothing at all like the gaping, screeching hole of misery he’d had pictured her to be.</p><p>Ares scowled at her cute little face. It wouldn’t fool him.</p><p>Turning away to return to the black void of his apartment, he wrenched open the door but before he could close it, 511’s bright voice called out again.</p><p>“Goodnight! I hope you sleep well!”</p><p>Ares grumbled and shut the door, pretending he hadn’t heard him.</p>
<hr/><p>The rest of the night was blissfully quiet. The next night too, fantastically wail-free. And the night after that.</p><p>For the whole rest of the week, not a peep was heard from unit 511. It was kind of incredible. In fact, after two torturous months slowly being driven insane by cat noises, the silence was downright staggering.</p><p>At first, Ares was half convinced the cute boy in 511 had just up and bounced, deciding flirting with eviction wasn’t worth the relatively cheap rent. He’d even made peace with the role his assault on 511’s door the other night had probably played in that, though it bummed him out he’d never get a chance to make up for being a dick their first meeting, nor would he be <em> getting </em> dick in any sequential ones. But he supposed that was fair. The universe wasn’t known for letting people have nice things.</p><p>These fears, however, turned out to be unfounded. Almost as if by magic, Ares began seeing 511 all the time, all around the apartment building. Running into him picking up the mail, sharing an elevator down to the parking lot, crossing paths early in the morning as Ares stumbled in from a long night out and 511 was leaving to begin his day.</p><p>They’d struck up plenty of conversation between these instances, during which Ares got to make a better impression of himself, and learned a fair bit about his mysterious neighbor as well.</p><p>Ares learned 511 was nineteen years old, a full-time student at Belhalla U and a part-time waiter at a local steakhouse- which explained both his infrequency at home as well as the reason he was unable to find someone to watch his cat.</p><p>“I have classes most every morning into the early afternoon, and I work just about every night. I usually just go from class straight to work, so I’m not really home unless I’m asleep.” 511 had explained next Thursday morning when they’d run into each other in the parking lot, Ares on his way to meet Nanna for coffee, 511 coming home from the dry cleaner’s with his work uniform pressed neatly in a bag. “Finding someone that’s able to stay with her through all that time has been understandably difficult. But recently, I’ve been trying to visit Deirdre a few times during the day, and I think it’s been helping.”</p><p>“I <em> was </em> wondering why I’d started seeing you around all the time. Though that doesn’t really help prove you’re not the ghost I thought you were.” Ares’d smirked playfully. He hadn’t fully committed to outright flirting with him yet, still feeling a bit guilty from before, but found playing coy was fun enough for the time being. “Were you just hiding from me before?”</p><p>511 laughed, a bright sound that had Ares’ heart doing the Cha-Cha Slide in his chest.</p><p>“Well, I suppose I don’t have any hard proof to the contrary, but I can at least point out that I still have feet! I don’t have a car, so I have to walk everywhere. No floating for me!”</p><p>And <em> there </em> was the explanation for the lack of vehicle in 511’s parking spot. Through their chats, Ares was slowly piecing together the fragments of 511’s life he’d gleaned through their shared wall, and his cute neighbor more than happy to fill in the blanks.</p><p>511 was an orphan, raised by an elder cousin and a cadre of his father’s friends and peers. He’d lived around lots of people his entire life, mostly on military bases as he’d come from a military family; and as it turned out, this was 511’s first time living on his own though it was his second year of college.</p><p>“I’m majoring in humanitarian studies,” 511 told him on Sunday night when he’d found Ares sitting in the stairwell, chain-smoking and holding his cellphone up to the heavens. He’d been trying to get better reception so his phone would stop spazzing out and finally download the pics his foster father had sent him of the damages his vintage Black Shadow motorbike had somehow incurred despite being held under lock and key in Javarro’s garage. 511 was coming home from his shift at the steakhouse and had taken the stairs because the elevator was broken again.</p><p>“I don’t have any specific career in mind, I just wanna do something that helps people.” He’d said through a mouthful of bread, a to-go box of day old dinner rolls settled on the stair between them when he’d sat down to keep Ares company.</p><p>Ares helped himself to a roll as he’d stretched his legs out on the steps, 511 a welcome distraction from his fruitless petition for god to give a fuck. He’d abandoned the task at hand once the desire to hurl his phone down the staircase had overtaken him, taking intermittent glances at the splattered corpse of his iPhone four floors below as 511 chatted on cheerily.</p><p>“But yeah, I figured it was about time I got out of the house. Lived a little.” He licked his fingers free of crumbs as he finished his roll, wiping his hands off on his apron before folding them together and resting his chin on top. “I mean, my cousin- the one who raised me- he was an emancipated minor at fourteen. I guess I’ve just always been a late bloomer.”</p><p>“That kinda stuff doesn’t really have anything to do with development or maturity, though.” Ares pointed out. “That’s usually just a means to escape a shit situation.”</p><p>“You’re not wrong.” 511 sighed, gaze drifting to the floor. “Sometimes I just wish I’d gotten up the courage to move out when I was younger. Then maybe I’d have a better idea of what I’m doing.”</p><p>Done with his roll too, Ares popped his eighth cigarette of the night in his mouth and lit up. “I’ve moved in and out of my foster’s house since I was sixteen. Let me tell you, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.” He took a deep drag before tapping off the ash over the banister. “The first time I left, it was because he threw me out over the girl I was dating. The next time was just because I didn’t wanna be grounded for getting a speeding ticket. A lot of dumb shit like that. The only reason I kept going back was because I was still tryin’ to finish high school, and he promised that whatever happened, he’d do everything he could to get me through it.”</p><p>511’s pensive look unfolded into a small smile. “That’s sweet though. He just wanted to make sure you succeeded.”</p><p>When they had run into each other a few days before, the subject of what had each brought them to living here at the apartments came up, and Ares had filled 511 in on his current situation; how he was working at a mechanic’s garage as need be and basically only going to his college classes when he felt like it. Upon turning eighteen three years ago- the most recent, and most likely <em> last, </em> time he’d relocated from Javarro’s house- he’d legally been allowed to claim his inheritance, a fairly fat stack courtesy of his long-deceased parents- the promise of such a reward really the only thing that’d gotten him through his tumultuous teenage years.</p><p>He’d just been living off his inheritance since, pissing it away on cigarettes, phones he inevitably kept destroying, and mods for his collection of vintage cars that he sadly had to keep at Javarro’s due to lack of space in the city, living in a shitty apartment complex because it was the first listing he saw and now couldn't be bothered to figure something else out, all without a single thought or care for the future.</p><p>Under this context, it wasn’t what Ares would have constituted as ‘success’. But when he considered the alternatives, he knew he could be a lot worse off. After he’d told 511 of his life, he hadn’t looked at Ares with envy or pity- the two most common responses to his tale of an orphaned, troubled young millionaire. Rather he’d only nodded, smiled, poked fun at his habitual murdering of cellular devices and asked him about his cars.</p><p>Ares had come to appreciate the bright and positive way 511 approached strife. He had a knack for turning negativity into optimism, for both himself and others. Ares included.</p><p>Back in the stairwell, he flashed 511 a grin. “I suppose so.”</p><p>Into the next week, their pleasant chats and runnings-into continued, as did the silence in 511’s apartment, and though it took him until Wednesday- mostly because he just kept forgetting- Ares eventually did learn 511’s real name: Seliph.</p><p>“I’m so sorry, haha! I never properly introduced myself, did I? I’ve been an awful neighbor from the get-go it would seem.” 511- <em> Seliph </em>- laughed, Deirdre’s furry form pressed into his shoulder. Recently, she’d become increasingly bold, darting for the door anytime Seliph left it open, and that day when Seliph had dropped by for his lunchtime visit she had bolted into the hall and ran smack-dab into Ares’ legs.</p><p>Currently the cat was cradled in a such way Ares could only have described as <em> forcefully </em>within Seliph’s arms, smelling the fingers Ares offered her. He still wasn’t fooled by this cute act of hers, this mishap only further proof of her demonic nature, but he’d found himself a little bit charmed anyways.</p><p>“Ehh, I can’t really blame you. I wasn’t exactly rolling out the welcome wagon.” Ares admitted, sticking his middle finger in Deirdre’s face for her to sniff. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve just been thinking of me as That Jerk for the last two weeks.” Coincidentally, Ares had forgotten to introduce himself too.</p><p>“Mmm, well, Ares, you did make a strong case for that.” Seliph hummed, readjusting his hold on his wiggling white cat, eyes rolling dramatically. “I had finished up my closing shift, and just as I’m getting home after a <em>loooong </em>day, there you were, pounding down my door!”</p><p>“For good reason!”</p><p>“Of course! You need your beauty sleep.” Seliph teased.</p><p>“Your cat was going to wake up the entire building, howling like that!” Ares defended. “And I’m plenty pretty without any sleep, thanks.”</p><p>Seliph chuckled, eyes bright as he flashed Ares one of his brilliantly blinding smiles. “You are.”</p><p>That smile had been stuck in Ares’ head every day since.</p><p>He woke up- all he could remember dreaming about was that smile. When he brushed his teeth; only 511’s grin. When he pulled back his blackout curtains and thought about how that stupid glowing star in the sky couldn’t ever dream of competing with Seliph. Yup, that smile.</p><p>He thought all the time about it. He wanted to see it again. Aimed at him, specifically.</p><p>He considered asking him for his number. Ares still saw Seliph around all the time, but it would be nice to have a way of contacting him that didn’t rely solely on random chance and how well the universe liked Ares that day.</p><p>But he also thought about how very unlikely busy-body, Good Boy ™ Seliph would be receptive to entertaining the advances of the rather aggressive, mostly-ambitionless, sort-of-unemployed jerk that lived next door.</p><p><em> Ah, </em>that was something else that had kind of happened recently. He might have quit his job at the mechanic’s. He hadn’t quite decided yet. There were extenuating circumstances regarding a car that’d been brought in for a body job that Ares might have swiped from the garage for a joyride that his cousin Delmund might have then crashed despite not owning said vehicle nor working at said garage, though nothing could really be proved due to lack of security footage, and Ares himself had fixed and moded the car anyways, so it was probably fine, though it provided yet another example of why it was undoubtedly for the best Delmund’s license remained suspended right now.</p><p>So, while that was a welcome distraction on Thursday, Ares was still in the throes of a misery mostly his own making the rest of the week. It’d gotten to the point he was basically playing angry gay chicken with himself.</p><p>Ask for his number. Don’t ask for it. Grow a pair. Continue being a little ball-less bitch for the rest of eternity.</p><p>It was really quite unfortunate. He must have been absolutely awful to have been around. Ares had barely been able to even stand <em> himself </em> all week, spending most of his free time at the gym trying to kickbox this shit out of his system with no success. He’d tossed his hair up in a ponytail and punched things till his knuckles wept and he was soaked in sweat, but that only made him think of another ponytail he’d like to pull free from its binding and another body he wanted to see drenched.</p><p>By Saturday, even Lene was teasing him for it.</p><p>“Just tell him you like him, already!” She’d commanded while over for dinner that night, coaching him in the art of confessions between scrolling through Instagram and cackling at his inability to bisexual well. “Please tell me you didn’t have this much difficulty asking <em> me </em>out! Just ask for his number! The worst he’ll say is no.”</p><p>She’d gotten up from her chair then, coming over to Ares in the kitchen where he was cooking and forcing him to look her straight in the eyes as he stirred.</p><p>“Though from everything you’ve told me, I doubt he will. I think he’s just waiting for you, babe.”</p><p>It was her words that finally gave Ares the kick in the ass he needed, and on Sunday, he was psyching himself to finally do it. Seliph had mentioned earlier in the week about working a late lunch/early dinner shift that day, so that meant he’d actually be home before the ass-crack of midnight, and maybe Ares wouldn’t be going somewhere, in the middle of a crisis, or asleep this time when he talked to him. That’d be spectacular.</p><p>But alas, Ares was a dumbass motherfucker who’d never learned shit.</p><p>At some point in the late morning, Ares had inadvertently dozed off on the couch watching some documentary on australian bird species, and upon waking up around two in the afternoon, realized he’d chain-blazed through his last pack of cigarettes the night before describing the nuances of his current romantic angst to his best friend/ex-girlfriend late into the early morning, and that- knowing himself- it was highly unlikely he’d find some previously forgotten pack stashed somewhere, as would it also be to get through the rest of his life, let alone the rest of the day, without a smoke, so he’d probably need to get up and go buy some before Seliph got off work. Flipping through the cupboards, he figured he could use some coffee too, and that it wouldn’t hurt him to pick up more rice either. He mentally added soap and Band-Aids to the list after a stroll through the bathroom, and checking his new phone he saw three recently received texts from Lene screaming about the cute girl in her yoga class again and one from Javarro asking if Ares wanted to come over for dinner next week, and Ares thought he’d have time to attend to these things before Seliph got home from work.</p><p>But then all of that went flying from his mind when he heard the-</p><p>
  <em> Meow. </em>
</p><p>Ares paused mid-stride to the door, whipping his head around.</p><p>
  <em> No. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Not again. </em>
</p><p>But there it was-</p><p>
  <em> Meeeeooow! </em>
</p><p>The noise was as eardrum eviscerating as ever; however, it wasn’t coming from beyond the wall. No, Ares was certain, patience-thin the plaster was, it muffled the edges of the meow slightly but very distinctly, and this wasn’t it. It sounded kind of far way, but also kind of warbly, and-</p><p>
  <em> MEOWWWW! </em>
</p><p>Ares turned, and looked to his kitchen. Spotted the window above the sink.</p><p>
  <em> No. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> No. Fucking. Way. </em>
</p><p>Ares strode across his apartment, and stood before the sink. Put his hands on the counter and leaned forward, angling his head towards the window.</p><p>
  <em> Meow! Meow. Meowwwww! </em>
</p><p>It should have been impossible. There wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell Seliph’s dumbass cat was outside his window right now, meowing her face off. This wasn’t happening.</p><p>Ares couldn’t see anything from here, so he hauled ass up onto the counter and into the sink, wrenching the windowsill open for what must have been the first time in its entire life by the heinous creak emitted, and stuck his torso out his fifth-floor apartment window.</p><p>And right there, standing primly on the stupidly skinny brick ledge that ran around the entire building,  <em>five floors</em> <em>up</em> in the goddamn air, was Deirdre, big bright eyes staring Ares dead in the face and seeming completely at ease despite the hellish shrieking clawing free from her throat and the fact they were both currently perched rather precariously <em>five floors</em> <em>up</em> <em>in</em> <em>the goddamn air</em>.</p><p>“Deirdre!” Ares hissed at her, panic crashing over him. He had to get her off the ledge. He needed to get <em> both </em> of them off this ledge. Anyone could see her- or <em> hear her, </em>for that matter- out here, and there was no guarantee their other neighbors wouldn’t snitch Seliph out if they did. Not to mention, there was no way he was going to be able to successfully woo his cute neighbor into giving him his phone number if said neighbor’s cat ended up in the same state as Ares’ most recently deceased iPhone, much less if Ares fucking joined her five stories below.</p><p>“Deirdre!!” He spat again, working himself out the window a bit further in hopes of reaching her if she wasn’t going to make his job easier by coming closer.</p><p>This idea, the cat seemed committed to, as she only blinked owlishly back, not making any indication of coming over to him, though she also didn’t shrink away- which Ares supposed counted for something. He wouldn’t have called himself an animal lover by any stretch of the word, but he wouldn’t have been able to forgive himself if anything happened to her. Not just because she was Seliph’s pet- or because she was the secret that’d bound their relationship up until this point- but because against his better judgment and best wishes, he’d started to warm up to her too.</p><p>Letting her turn into a kitty pancake- while probably a little satisfying- wouldn’t do, no, not at all.</p><p>Ares worked himself just a bit more out of the window, basically bracing his survival on straddling the middle of the sink and faucet pole with his knees, but he managed to reach her. Deirdre continued to just stand contentedly there, even when Ares accidentally poked her in the chest, trying to make a grab for her, mewing disappointedly when his hand <em> just </em> brushed by her once again, like she was waiting for him to grab her.</p><p>“I’m <em> trying, </em> woman.” Ares growled at her in response, reaching for her again. “God, you could- ah, <em> help </em> me a little!”</p><p>And just like that, she shifted, <em> just </em> close enough for him to grab her-</p><p>He snatched her up by the scruff with one hand, lifting her back to him and pressing her to his chest in a death grip of relief. “God, fuck, god, thank <em> fuck </em>.” He mumbled into her thick fur, face buried in her side. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, OH, thank fuck…”</p><p>After a solid minute of smooshing the little beast into his sternum, Ares gathered his wits and shimmed them back inside, forcing the window closed with one hand, unwilling to risk Deirdre slipping away again. With that done, he slid off the counter and onto the floor, and only then did he let her go.</p><p>She leapt gracefully to the ground, landing with a small thud and a sniff before promptly making to explore Ares’ kitchen. And then, watching her pad around the tiled floor sniffing the dusty corners he couldn’t be bothered to clean, reality crashed down on Ares.</p><p>What the fuck was he supposed to do now?</p><p>What in the world was he supposed to do about his neighbor/crush’s cat in his kitchen? The cat that was currently sticking her nose in a spider web and- <em> oh shit </em>, yeah, that was definitely a spider she was chewing on now.</p><p>“Deirdre!” Ares called to her, and she jumped with a sharp <em> murr, </em>turning to glance at him over her shoulder with half a spider leg still sticking out of her mouth.</p><p>“God, shit- are you hungry? I’ll feed you. I’ll feed you… something.” Ares hauled himself up and stumbled over to the fridge, yanking the door open. “Something <em> not </em> a fucking spider.” He grumbled, appraising the shelves. There wasn’t a whole lot, some eggs and a bag of baby carrots and extraneous leftovers of questionable quality, but a small black to-go box pushed towards the back of the second shelf caught Ares’ eye. He extricated it, and popped open the top. He’d forgotten, but Seliph had brought him steak from work the other day- a gesture of kindness that had made Ares’ then-raging hangover feel completely undone, but later when said hangover kicked back in, he’d just shoved the box into the refrigerator and subsequently forgot.</p><p>Taking a quick sniff of the box, it still seemed to be good. Steak would do nicely as a spider substitute, he supposed.</p><p>After a quick trip to the microwave, he got Deirdre settled in with the steak, and once she was happily munching away, Ares sat himself back down on the floor beside her and assessed the situation.</p><p>It was two o’clock in the afternoon<em> . 2:20 pm </em>, Ares corrected himself, checking his phone. It was far too early for Seliph to possibly come home. He probably wouldn’t be home until after four, perhaps even five, depending on how the day had gone.</p><p>All things considered, the cat was fine. He’d kept Deirdre from falling off the building, and managed to feed her something other than spider. The window was closed, and there wasn’t any other way for her to get out, and Ares didn’t need to go anywhere badly enough that he’d ever risk leaving her here alone, should she get it in her little kitty mind to test this.</p><p>Ares himself was fine too. Probably still a mental case, if not more so after all this bullshit, but physically unscathed and unharmed. No cigarettes, no coffee, and no real way to get them under current circumstances, but he’d survive. Really, he was just left feeling a bit exasperated.</p><p>Though mostly he was kicking himself for not getting up the courage to ask for Seliph’s number sooner.</p><p>Ares had no way to contact him. No way to know when he’d be home. He was stuck with the cat for the time being.</p><p>On the floor, Deirdre had finished the steak, taking to licking the to-go container of the meat juices. Ares watched her for a moment, lost in his thoughts, before the telltale <em> crunch </em> of styrofoam being bitten through shook him back to reality.</p><p>
  <em> I’m stuck with the cat. </em>
</p>
<hr/><p>A thump shook the wall, the whining drag of a door opening beyond sounding out. Something hit the ground with an earth-shattering thud, followed by a high sigh of relief.</p><p>Ares clicked off his laser pointer.</p><p>“Sounds like he’s home.”</p><p>Deirdre, nestled amidst the dessicated remains of the newspaper she had mercilessly butchered in a fantastic display of undomesticated fury, mewed amicably in response.</p><p>She came easily when he picked her up this time, tucking her under his arm, and upon second thought, his leather jacket. Ares stomped into some sneakers and then together they strolled out into the hall. </p><p>Ares knocked and waited.</p><p>Seliph was a vision when he opened the door, bangs a sweaty blue splay across his forehead, lips and nose pink from the chill, the top two buttons of his uniform already undone and a sharp half-inch of collarbone visible beneath his long, pale throat. He smelled like rolls and butter and sweat-diluted cologne and though he sagged under that aching, bone-deep exhaustion he’d steadily become more willing to allow himself to show that always had Ares’ heart twisting in his chest, Seliph's expression still brightened immensely upon seeing him. </p><p>“Hello, Ares?” Seliph said, tired eyes widening when a little white head poked out from Ares’ armpit. “D…Deirdre?”</p><p>“Hey. Yeah.” </p><p>Seliph glanced between the two for several seconds before sighing deeply. “Come in?”</p><p>“Cool.”</p><p>Seliph backed out of the door frame, and Ares followed him through, feeling a little giddy- finally setting foot in his mysterious crush/neighbor’s apartment for the first time.</p><p>Which immediately almost became his last time- the ground rushing up to meet him when he made it inside the entryway and the next step had him colliding with a large, hard surface. </p><p>He stumbled, hissing and catching himself on the door ungracefully as Deirdre wailed within his jacket, toe aching through his sneaker as he saw the overstuffed messenger bag that’d dared to plot itself in his way. </p><p>Seliph glanced back and down, and winced. “Oh! So sorry. Goodness, how did those get there…”</p><p>He swept in, lugging the staggeringly dense bag away from the threshold, spilling several books in his haste. He huffed, a deeply embarrassed noise that came through his nose, gathering up the pile of books and dumping them on the nearest flat surface- the top of a bookshelf already overflowing with numerous other objects, so naturally they excused themselves to the floor once more. </p><p>He picked them up and tried again. Seliph held his textbooks and Ares held his cat and watched as several of them tumbled headlong to their demise on the hardwood. </p><p>Glancing around Seliph’s living room, he found much of it to be in the same state of disarray- nothing dirty but everything cluttered, especially around the door, as if everything was shed simultaneously upon entry. Winter boots and an umbrella with a frog pattern and more than a few pieces of mail marked URGENT, what looked like a spare apron and a fine spray of discarded pens.</p><p>Back to the shitshow, Seliph had conceded to gravity’s design and stacked his books beside his messenger bag in the corner with a hapless expression of resigned misery. When he caught Ares watching again, he sighed sheepishly, and quickly made for the kitchen- and it was then Ares caught the smell of coffee. </p><p>Their apartments were mirrors of each other, a small entryway leading into the living room and kitchen, the latter two divided by an island of cabinets. On the counter beside the sink and neighboring a little red cactus sat a compact five-cup coffee pot, and Seliph switched off the automatic timer before grabbing what Ares had initially believed to be a decorative planter but now saw that it had a handle, and dumped the entirety of the pot into it.</p><p>Which he then proceeded to down straight black without batting an eye.</p><p>For a moment, Seliph only drank his pitch coffee and Ares stood there, still holding his cat, briefly recontextualizing everything he knew about this boy.</p><p>“Sorry, I just… yeah. I’ve got a lot of homework tonight.” Seliph eventually said, putting his massive mug down, half of it done in one go, and when it hit the countertop, the sound unblocked something in Ares’ head. He released Deirdre, right onto the island between them, and she trotted up to Seliph and greeted him with a soft mew. </p><p>Seliph scratched her head right between the soft ears, and then looked up at him. “Ares, what happened? Did Deirdre get out again?”</p><p>“Kinda?” Ares reached across the counter to run a hand down her back, shoulder to tail as he’d also come to discover she liked, and she rumbled a sweet purr in return. “I found her meowing at my window.”</p><p>Seliph’s hand stilled. “Pardon? Your- window?”</p><p>“The window. The one in my kitchen, five stories in the air. Not too far from yours.”</p><p>Seliph went deathly pale. “Shit.” He stated after a moment, staring at his cat before taking another long drink of his black, black coffee. “When was this?”</p><p>“Had to be about, like, two hours ago?”</p><p>“You’ve just been with her since?”</p><p>“Uh, yeah. I couldn’t just… leave her there? And if she’d kept meowing, anyone in the building could have seen or heard her. So, I brought her in with me. Figured I’d just keep her company till you got home.” He stopped petting her and shrugged. “She was really good, actually. Didn’t meow at all. We just… watched TV. And played with my laser pointer. She also destroyed 509’s newspaper but I don’t know the guy, so fuck him.” </p><p>Seliph’s eyes had gone wide again, but instead of panic they were filled with star-bright wonder. “Oh? Really? She wasn’t scared, or didn’t hide, or cry, or anything?”</p><p>“Nope. Just fed her that leftover steak you brought me and sat on the floor with her.” Leaving out the part where she’d eaten most of a spider and nearly a small fifth of a styrofoam container, but the rest was true. For all his dread, being stuck with the cat hadn’t been awful; she behaved herself quite well, sated by pats and the rest of the australian bird documentary and the wanton destruction of another’s property, and additionally, he’d discovered she was a belly rub type of cat. After that, it was all child’s play.</p><p>“I’ve had worse surprise houseguests.” Ares assured him with a small smirk.</p><p>“That’s… that’s great. Oh my god, that’s incredible.” Seliph said, awed, exhaling a mighty breath that seemed to deflate him twice over. “She’s plenty friendly, but… like I said, she tends to get separation anxiety and can be quite skittish. But she likes you. And you got along well enough…”</p><p>Deirdre head-booped Ares’ knuckles. “Yeah.”</p><p>Seliph’s gaze turned sharp then, trailing from his cat to his neighbor, and he eyed Ares up with searing scrutiny, expression unlike any Ares had ever seen on him before. </p><p>He rested both hands on the counter and leaned over the island with fearsome intent. “Would you be my pet sitter???”</p><p>Ares blinked. “Uh?”</p><p>Deirdre whined when Ares stopped booping her back, but Seliph only intensified, focused on Ares like he was a professor he was determined to impress. “I know, I know, this is out of nowhere, and you already have a job, and even if I can’t pay as well as a full-time thing, I can still pay for you to watch her whenever you’re available. Would you mind? Please?” His gaze turned beseeching, and he retracted, wringing his fingers together suddenly shy in the ties of his apron. “She likes you, clearly. I like you, and I trust you, too.” </p><p>Those eyes flicked up, arresting Ares’ every fiber of his being in their deep blue depths. “She can come over to your apartment if you’d like, or you can stay with her over here? Just, please?”</p><p>Ares stared at his neighbor for a moment, blindsided by both the admission and the request. The thought had never even crossed his mind. </p><p>Ares could have died for this damn cat. He’d realized that on the ledge, risking his literal neck for the mouthy beast, and he did indeed care for her. And their afternoon together hadn’t been terrible; it hadn’t been easy, but it hadn’t been arduous, and Ares hadn’t been miserable. Deirdre was a hellion and <em> loud </em> , but she was also so very <em> sweet. </em></p><p>And this was so small in the grand scheme of things; something small he could do for Seliph, who had so much on his plate, who took it all in stride and still did his best to be considerate of all those around him, something small that could make his life immensely easier, could lessen the wear of that ever-looming exhaustion.</p><p>And small as it was, this was something Ares cared about; really cared about, something that he wouldn't let himself fuck up or carelessly piss away, because just as Ares was willing to nearly die for his pet banshee, he also thought Seliph deserved a damn break and maybe the entire world too, and if he could do this <em> one </em>little thing to grant him some modicum of peace of mind, he very-fucking-well should. </p><p>He nodded. “Alright. I’ll do it.”</p><p>Seliph’s whole face transformed then, relief and elation and <em> appreciation </em>, profound, like a ripple effect through his body. “That’s great. You have no idea how grateful I am to you, Ares.” He glanced at his cat, lips twisting up in a delightfully wry little expression that Ares had the sudden and desperate impulse to kiss off him. “Or well, maybe you do now.”</p><p>His eyes shifted from Deirdre to Ares, chin dipped, piqued half-grin skewing the sweetness of his face. Deirdre brushed past him and leapt off the counter to the floor, leaving nothing between them but two feet of fake marble and nearly three weeks of unspoken attraction.</p><p>The opportunity had been presented to Ares upon a silver cat-shaped platter. There for him to take.</p><p>Moment of truth. Ares tapped the back of his hand on the counter, rings clacking against the plastic, casual as can be. “So, uh, can I get your number then?” <em> Clack, clack, clack </em> , the epitome of casual. He felt like his larynx was about to eject itself. <em> Clack, clack. </em>“Just so, you know, you can message me when you need to.”</p><p>Seliph perked up. “Ah, of course. Um, actually,” And then his face flushed an entrancing shade of pink, like the rosey insides of a budding flower. “I’ve been meaning to give it to you for a little while now. It just kept, ah, slipping my mind.”</p><p><em> Clack clack. </em>“Oh.” Ares replied, “Cool.” Mildly stupefied and the opposite of cool. </p><p>Seliph looked at him then, eyebrows upturned, eyes lifted, their height difference not as much as initially thought but every centimeter of distance felt in that instant. “I’m sure this is terrible timing, like, <em> really, </em>really bad, but…” He smiled at him, brittle, like anything could shatter him. Like he was putting all his weight on Ares in this moment, hoping to finally be supported again after all his time alone. “I really like you, Ares. So,”</p><p>Ares’ heart thudded in his chest, so hard he feared it might bruise. Seliph liked him; he liked Ares,<em> really </em> liked him- bitchy, unaspiring, brutal Ares. <em> Lene was right all along. </em>Of course she was. </p><p>And how else was he supposed to react, faced with such feelings, if not exactly in kind?</p><p>“Tell you what,” He said, drumming his fingers on the countertop, as if deep in thought. “How about the next time Deirdre comes over, you stay for dinner? I’m a damn fine cook.” He shot him a cocky grin.“When’s the last time you had homemade chicken saltimbocca?”</p><p>“Never.” Seliph said, eyes flashing as he bit his lip. His voice was hardly louder than a whisper, and all the sweeter for it. “But I’d like that a lot.”</p><p>Something soft brushed his leg, and Ares looked down to see Deirdre winding herself around his leg, giving him a bright little <em> mew </em>and bumping his shin affectionately with her nose.</p><p>Noticing her, Seliph glanced fondly at his furry little hellion and laughed. “Deirdre would too, I think.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>@Mistressakiraart on tumblr and @Mistressakira12 on Twitter!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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